drinkinblackcoffee wrote:Definitely the Sports Pub. Horrifying wait staff. Worse is across the street at the Ale Asylum. I know people like the beer, but they fail miserably as a bar. I had a friend who was leaving the country to return to the Motherland and we wanted to have a party there. We didn't ask for any special treatment, just an area to set up. Denied. Mind you it was happy hour and we were the only people there at the time.

OK, I just have to question anyone including the Ale Asylum as one of the worst bars in Madison. I stop in regularly, I obviously have pimped their beer in this forum more than once, and I’ve never had a bad experience there. Just what exactly were you trying to “set up”?

Petro wrote: ...Realizing that his buddy had just brought a prostitute into his home while his wife was out of town, the owner of the house flipped and demanded she be removed at once, whereupon the friend that had invited her gave her a ride home.

It gets even crazier from there, but I've probably already said too much.

What you've done, Petro my friend, is set the scene for a little ROAAAD HEAD!

I think the OTP closed down. I haven't driven by there in some time so I'm not certain, but a friend who lives in the area mentioned this last week.

I recall going there fairly often with my folks a few years back and having a decent enough time - the chili was very good. However, the last few times I'd been there it had been a bit sketchy and I stopped trying their taps since the lines were pretty funky. The plastered townie ratio seemed to spike too, though I can't say it was anywhere near the worst in Madison.

Goober McTuber wrote:OK, I just have to question anyone including the Ale Asylum as one of the worst bars in Madison. I stop in regularly, I obviously have pimped their beer in this forum more than once, and I’ve never had a bad experience there. Just what exactly were you trying to “set up”?

Well, I told the story on another thread, but it fits here too. I went there to grade some papers a couple of years ago, and the guy at the bar who took my pizza order came over and started pestering me about WTC conspiracy theories. I gave him the cold shoulder, and he went back behind the bar and kept lobbing "huh? HUH? What about THAT?" kind of shitheaded conspiracy stuff at me.

I'm not sure if your experience at the Ale Asylum qualifies as bad service, but if you feel the bartender was out of line (or flat out crazy) you have a right to be upset. I would add though that 1 questionable interaction with a bartender (who no longer works there) should not bar you from going to a great bar. As a life time drinkslinger, bartenders come and go, but the personality of the bar is what counts. The beer is some of the best in the nation. The clientele that go there are eclectic, but polite. Even the staff is above what you’d expect, with people like Nate someone I would consider a Professional Bartender. I don’t work there, but I pay for there lights by tipping pints and I really hope you give the bar a second chance.

Cheers.

p.s. I would argue to make it a better bar, they should add pinball, but that’s just me...

Oh my God, stay away from the Children's Museum, you're likely to have a coronary. Wilson's is a family-owned bar. It's not unusual to go in there and find six or seven people working there, all of whom are Wilsons. Paranoid much?

The softball league I play in has two teams of late-20s to early-30s, both of which used to be sponsored by the Tip Top. So, at least on Wednesday evenings, there were between 20 and 25 guys with nearly the same number of attractive women in and around the Tip Top.

I love the Tip-Top! The Tip-Top is one of those bars that's so bad that it's good. There's just a low-key, fun trashy vibe in that place. It is dead a lot there, so I laughed when Marvell asked if anyone ever went there.

A bar that's so bad that it's...bad is the Club La Mark, in my opinion. That has got to be the stinkiest bar around -- literally! It just smells awful in there. Some bikers seem to like the place. The clientele is about as trashy East Side as you can get.

Wiggie's is pretty trashy too, but they play good '80s music a lot, so it just gets an honorable mention.

I hate all the downtown meat market bars just like Brats, Johnny O's, Brothers & Wando's just like everyone else, but those places don't count to me when reading the original question.

A place that personally don't like is The Brink. Some kid with rich parents gets to start a bar in a building that his dad owns where there are already two other cool bars. Forget that!

Slick Willy wrote:Wiggie's is pretty trashy too, but they play good '80s music a lot, so it just gets an honorable mention.

some would argue that "good '80s music" is an oxymoron.

Slick Will wrote:A place that personally don't like is The Brink. Some kid with rich parents gets to start a bar in a building that his dad owns where there are already two other cool bars. Forget that!

Slick Willy wrote:Wiggie's is pretty trashy too, but they play good '80s music a lot, so it just gets an honorable mention.

some would argue that "good '80s music" is an oxymoron.

Slick Will wrote:A place that personally don't like is The Brink. Some kid with rich parents gets to start a bar in a building that his dad owns where there are already two other cool bars. Forget that!